Homicide is a criminological role-playing game aimed at teaching natural science and other subjects to pupils in lower secondary education. The game places the pupils in the role of investigators trying to solve a series of murders in a fictitious small-town called Melved. This project was featured on Futurelab's Innovations at BETT 2005 stand.

Outline and overview

Placing the pupils in the role of a special police task force arriving in the small town of Melved has a very powerful learning potential, because the setting generates suspense, driving the pupils to solve the mystery. Specific scientific facts, such as the development stages of insects, suddenly become useful tools for this task.

Homicide is highly narrative and is inspired by actual events. The pupils use the same methods as the forensics experts, such as DNA and fingerprint analysis and ballistics. The level of difficulty is designed for the pupils' capabilities and the objectives laid out by the Danish Ministry of Education.

Homicide is designed as problem-oriented project work, where four groups each try to solve a murder mystery. During their investigation, they must periodically update their 'colleagues' and the press on the progress of the investigation. The game ends when the murders are solved and each group establishes a case against the suspect(s).

Homicide can be played in the course of one week, or in smaller portions over a longer period of time.

Playing the part of chief of police, the teacher guides the pupils in their work. Thus, the teacher is both a supervisor and assistant to the pupils, asking questions and helping them focus on the key issues.

The game is cross-disciplinary, however the teacher(s) need not be familiar with all the disciplines that come into play in the game, nor is it a requirement that the teacher be familiar with game-based teaching.

In Homicide the learning process takes place in the discussion between the pupils in the class, and not only in the interaction between pupil and computer. The governing principle in the learning situation is not IT, but the narrative and the pupils' experience of that fiction. The computer is a source of knowledge that the pupils can access, such as a criminological handbook describing procedures and techniques for solving crimes, scientific background material, crime scene reports, interrogations of suspects and much more.

Project motivations

The Danish Ministry of Education aims to put more IT into the classroom, but the schools need something to use the machinery for. Teachers involved in the pilot runs report that they have never before seen the pupils concentrate for so long at a time.

Homicide is a research and development project investigating the potential of using learning games in science education. The overall aim is to change focus from viewing games as a way of luring children into learning science to investigate the ways in which game structures and qualities can support learning.

Our studies are based on the notion of situated learning. The game-based learning situation, though, is not in situ but a simulation of practice in a didactic school context. We therefore use the term simulated practice learning about the game-based learning situation. The research focuses on how the game's simulated practice situation supports development of science competencies.

Technology used

A modular interface with underlying databases, text and data-editing tools, along with more than two hours' worth of video recordings of crime scenes and suspects, represents the fictitious world and the technical content (and regulates the fictitious world's reactions to the pupils' actions). The game can be run on a modestly powered PC with the newest versions of Flash, Acrobat Reader and Internet Explorer.

Partners

ITMF
Forlag Malling Beck
Game-driven

Contacts

Max Møller
Project Coordinator
Learning Lab Denmark
max@lld.dk

Rikke Magnussen
Researcher
Learning Lab Denmark
rikke@lld.dk





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December 2004

Please note: this article is NOT covered by Futurelab's Open Access licence (see open access policy for further details).